The Sonic Cruiser was born from one of numerous outline research and development projects that began in the 1990s at Boeing with the goal to look at potential designs for a possible new near-sonic or supersonic airliner.

[14] The origin has been traced back to 1995, with the formation of an internal Airplane Creation Process Strategy team, which had designed a plane code-named Project Glacier that strongly resembled the initial Sonic Cruiser drawings by fall 2000.

[4] In early 2001, Boeing CEO Alan Mulally began privately publicizing the concept to potential customers, touting its improved speed at an efficiency similar to existing designs.

[7] The March 29, 2001 announcement was followed by a larger media event at the Paris Air Show on June 19, where futurist John Naisbitt and Mulally praised the concept, unveiled as a 1⁄40-scale model.

[8] Boeing estimated the Sonic Cruiser's fuel efficiency would be comparable to best performing twin-engine wide body airliners in 2002 on a per-passenger basis.

[4] In order to successfully build a commercial airplane with such a high advanced materials content (projected to be 60–70% of the airframe by weight), Boeing lined up a consortium of international partners with experience in aerostructures.

[24] Based on artwork released by Boeing in July 2002, the Sonic Cruiser now sported two taller vertical tails with no inward cant, and the forward canard was set at zero degrees dihedral.

Demand for air travel fell dramatically after the September 11 attacks, and Boeing began publicizing Project Yellowstone to potential customers for the first time in February and March 2002.

[7][26][27] Much of the research from the Sonic Cruiser was applied to the 787, including carbon fiber reinforced plastic for the fuselage and wings, bleedless engines, cockpit and avionics design.